Nobel Peace Prize 2007
Former Vice President Al Gore was nominated (and has won) for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his wide-reaching
efforts to draw the world's attention to the dangers of global warming. "A prerequisite for winning the Nobel Peace Prize is making a difference, and Al Gore has made a difference."
"For
their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about
man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures
that are needed to counteract such change" the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize was jointly awarded to Vice President Al Gore and the 3,000 scientists of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
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Water: the Overlooked Utility
The growth of the bottled-water
business is a phenomenon that baffles environmentalists and confounds
economists. Why are Americans -- as well as citizens of most other countries
these days -- hellbent on spending more for tap water than for gasoline? That's
the gist of bottled water: it's often glorified tap water, packaged in
disposable plastic, that sells for, say $1 per 8-ounce bottle, equivalent to $8
per gallon.
Americans spent more on bottled
water last year than on iPods or movie tickets.
The environmental toll of bottled water is leading some
activists and political leaders to take action. Last week, a group of U.S.
mayors passed a resolution calling for a study of the impact of bottled water
on city waste. It also aims to promote municipal tap water, which in many U.S.
cities is of equal or better quality than what is sold on store shelves. Source: Greenbiz.com
Send for Energy Ace's Water Audit factsheet. |
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 LEED News
As of June 26, 2007, all LEED certified projects must achieve at least two "Optimize Energy Performance" points within LEED, which will improve the energy performance of all LEED certified green buildings by 14% for new construction and 7% for existing buildings.
This was done because buildings are an important and often overlooked solution to climate change: Buildings are responsible for nearly 40% of CO2 emissions in the United States due to energy use, water consumption and other operational issues. CO2, a greenhouse gas that is a major contributor to climate change, has increased 18% since 1990 due to the rise in energy consumption.
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President Clinton Announces
Landmark Program to Reduce Energy Use in Buildings Worldwide
Not to be outdone by Al Gore, President Clinton has announced his Clinton Climate
Initiative (CCI), in the effort to slow and mitigate global climate change.
This announcement discusses the newest program under the CCI, the Energy
Efficiency Building Retrofit Program. While efficiencies are more and more
being designed into new buildings, this program, supported by a number of
banks, corporations, cities, and Clinton's own Foundation, will address the
challenge of retrofitting the world's existing building stock for high energy
efficiencies to save energy and reduce carbon emissions.
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Campus News
415 Colleges and
Universities have now signed the Presidents Climate Commitment, pledging to
reduce their global warming impact by taking actions in a variety of
ways. This is up from 343 two months ago.
The Coastal Carolina
University Student Government Association has passed a voluntary green fees
resolution. The resolution, which won honors as the best student legislation of
the year, would allow students to add $10 to their tuition each semester, to be
used to purchase renewable energy and make energy-efficiency upgrades on
campus. The fee would provide up to $160,000 per school year.
There are now six public universities in Tennessee with student approved fee increases for sustainability-related programs. University of Tenessee Knoxville, Middle Tennessee State University, Austen Peay State University, University of Tennessee Chattanooga, University of Memphis, and Tennessee State University. Fees are being used to purchase green power and to support on-campus clean energy projects, campus lighting upgrades, compact fluorescent lamp exchanges, hybrid vehicles purchases and AASHE memberships.
Signs of the Times:
In a recent survey by
Key Education Resources, 18 percent of students planning to attend college this
fall said that their number one social concern is the environment, while only
11 percent of the students ranked the job market as their number one concern.
In contrast, 29 percent of parents said the job market was their top concern
when they applied to college.
Source: AASHE Bulletin
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Leaving a Light On for You Motel 6, the largest corporately owned and operated hotel chain in
North America, announces the roll out of the first national fluorescent
light bulb and battery recycling program within the hospitality
industry. Motel 6, with nearly 900 properties across the country, is
the first chain to implement this type of recycling program without a
federal mandate.
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Car Talk
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Still
a rare sight on the streets of New York City, hybrid taxis will be the only
option within five years.
Credit: Ford Motor Company
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New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced recently that the city's fleet
of 13,000 taxicabs will shift entirely to hybrid vehicles by 2012. The New York
Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) will phase in new emissions and mileage
standards over the next four years that will force a shift to hybrid vehicles.
According to the mayor, the shift will reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from
the city's taxicab and for-hire vehicle fleet by 50 percent within the next
decade. It will also benefit the cabbies, cutting fuel costs by $10,000 per
year for the average taxicab.
The TLC first approved eight hybrid models for use in
the city back in October 2005, but there are currently only 375 hybrid vehicles
in the city's fleet. According to Ford Motor Company, 288 of those vehicles are
Ford Escape Hybrids.
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